Bell: Catholics don't teach spousal rape. Get it.

It is not true. It is the furthest thing from the truth. People should shut their gobs.

Catholic schools in Alberta do not plan to teach and do not want to teach and never contemplated teaching kids it is alright for a person to rape their spouse.

An oft-repeated news report earlier this week says Catholic school superintendents take issue with sexual consent by a partner in marriage.

The report refers to documents sent by Catholic school superintendents to the NDP provincial government explaining Catholic teaching on sexuality.

Premier Notley hits the roof. At this point you have to wonder how in heaven’s name could the premier even think Catholics believed someone raping their spouse is permissible.

“Consent is the law in Alberta and under no circumstances will any child in Alberta be taught they have to somehow accept illegal behaviour in a sexual relationship. The end,” says the premier, thundering her warning.

It isn’t the end.

Social media goes wild. The slimers have a whole pile of fun, especially after United Conservative leadership hopeful Jason Kenney says he supports Catholic schools.

What a hammer to bash conservatives! Yes, those conservative folks are so nasty they don’t even believe you need consent to have sex. How low can they go! How criminal!

Those burping up their outrage should have thought it was too good to be true. Too easy a score. They didn’t.

Hell, even United Conservative leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer got sucked into the stupidity. He issued a statement. He couldn’t comprehend we were having an argument over whether to teach you need consent before sex.

One problem. There was no argument. Never was one.

Here’s Bonnie Annicchiarico, past president of the Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta.

What Catholic schools want to teach is the exact opposite of what they’re accused of wanting.

“Consent would be a bare minimum,” says Annicchiarico.

As Catholics they want to teach there’s more to sex with someone than just both people consenting.

“We’re expecting and hoping our young people will be in a committed relationship and they’ll make thoughtful choices. Ideally, it will be in the sanctity of marriage,” she says.

This is the reality of the Catholic position, moms and dads and girls and boys.

So what about this idea Catholics wanting to teach rape by a spouse is just fine?

“It is so far-fetched,” says Annicchiarico. “I’m hoping people will realize there’s no truth in it. It makes no sense to us. It caught us off-guard. We don’t know where it came from.”

We do. It was a political stunt run amok fuelled by a news story and the premier’s comments.

Karl Germann is the president of the Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta.

Germann was disappointed with what he’s seen happening.

“It’s not true. It takes a lot of work to correct the misinformation out there right now.”

He says consent before sex is absolutely mandatory but a relationship “should also be life-giving and loving.”

Notley insists it’s not her NDP government who brought up this issue. It was the document from the Catholic superintendents going public this week.

She’s just “ensuring we don’t have confusing messages delivered in our schools around the issue of consent.”

There isn’t any confusion. There wasn’t any confusion.

The documents long ago delivered to the Notley government say consent is always necessary but “it is not the only threshold that needs to be met.”

“We support teaching about legal consent as one of the several important things that guides our decisions about sexual activity.”

Bingo!

On Thursday, Notley is still going on about what Catholic schools can and can’t do while saying she’s not interested in debating the scrapping of taxpayer-funded Catholic schools “at this time.”

Here’s a twist. The Catholic school system has been working for more than a year with staffers in the province’s education department.

As recently as ten days ago the provincial folks said the objectives of the sex-ed course would be broad enough to accommodate Catholic needs. Everything would work out.

The Catholics agree students should broadly discuss sex-ed topics while the schools would also promote Catholic teaching since they’re … er … Catholic.

Notley is apparently misinformed.

Jason Kenney pulls no punches. He accuses the Notley NDP of “smearing an entire school system.”

Can still hear Notley.

“Jason Kenney may have a high tolerance for intolerance but our government does not,” thunders the premier.